On Wednesday, February 25, fifteen artists, entertainers, and art patrons were celebrated at the eighth Texas Medal of Arts Awards, which celebrates Texans who promote the arts in regards to children's education, state economy and Texas culture.

This year marks the 10^th anniversary of the Poetry Out Loud competition, a recitation contest offered through partnership between The National Endowment for the Arts and The Poetry Foundation. The contest strives to help students, “master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and explore their literary heritage”.

Grant deadline alert!  Did you know that funds are available for arts projects in and about the National Park System?  

July 23 is the deadline for “Imagine Your Parks,” a funding collaboration of the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Park Service to support projects that use the arts to engage people with memorable places and landscapes of the National Park System. This NEA/NPS collaboration celebrates the NEA’s 50th anniversary in 2015 and the National Park Service’s centennial in 2016.  

We know that the arts are integral to the innovative thinking needed in the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and math), which is why Americans for the Arts is partnering with Congressional leaders, the private sector, educators, and researchers to make visible the amazing work happening around the country in STEAM education. On May 7, 2015, Americans for the Arts attended a STEAM Assembly hosted by VH1 Save the Music in New York City.

Google contiues to photograph street art and murals around the world in high-resoultion images. Various organzations have have teamed up with Google to collect images of the emperial artworks and in some instances created online tours for users who can't travel to the location to view and learn about the artwork.

Artist Random Act states that “Street art is trying to elevate itself to a higher art form, and Google is allowing us to do so.” Google is preserving street art even while it is having trouble  documenting musuem artworks due to copyright issues.

On May 23rd and 24th 2015, the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra capped its season with the second iteration of Symphony in Sculpture—a musical tour of the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park—which featured six new movements by Emmy Award-winning composer Steve Heitzeg.

In Missouri, Rep. Kathy Swan (R-Cape Girardeau) is championing House Bill 803 (HB 803) to breathe new life into the state’s film tax credit program, which ended in 2013.

In an article about Kevin Spacey's real-life presence in Washington D.C., which predates his role on the television show "House of Cards," Robert Lynch was quoted speaking about Spacey's role in advocating for arts funding at the 2012 Arts Advocacy Day.

Americans for the Arts has partnered again with Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI) for the 2015 Arts Destination Marketing Award.

The Americans for the Arts 2015 Public Art Network (PAN) Year in Review is open for submissions. The annual PAN Year in Review recognizes exemplary, innovative and creative public art projects completed in the previous calendar year, 2014. Up to 50 projects will be selected and presented at the Americans for the Arts Public Art & Placemaking Preconference happening June 10-12, 2015 in Chicago, Illinois.

Two of the foremost banjoists in the world, Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn, have announced plans to donate profits from merchandise sales at an upcoming concert to the Confluence Project in Eau Clair, WI. The show will take place at the State Theatre in Eau Clair on February 27. 

In his State of the City address on Tuesday New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio introduced plans to create 1,500 affordable living spaces and 500 affordable workspaces for artists across the city, according to the New York Times.

Register today for the 2015 Annual Convention, taking place June 12–14, 2015 in Chicago!

The conference will take place at the Chicago Sheraton, with more than 40 breakouts, three keynotes, three preconferences, two Workshop Intensives, a dozen ARTventure Tours, and an opening reception at the Museum of Contemporary Art! 

Today, USA Today launched an exciting contest that highlights cultural districts. They are asking the public to vote for their favorite art and cultural districts based on a set of hand-picked districts and neighborhoods within the U.S. You have until Monday, March 2 at Noon, ET to vote for your favorite cultural district on the USA Today website below!

The International Art Materials Association (NAMTA) recently released their third edition of the Artists and Art Materials Study in 2015. This survey covers both the United States and Canadian arts markets and includes the results of authoritative surveys of more than 6,000 active artists and specialty art materials retailers. It serves as a summary of market size and trends.

Artist Mary Ellen Carroll unveiled her work Public Utility 2.0 as part of “Prospect.3: Notes for Now,” an international art biennial taking place in New Orleans until January 25^th. The project “aspires to nothing less than a reshaping of the policies and technology we use for wireless communication” by exploring the use of empty bandwidth dubbed by the Federal Communications Commission as Super Wi-Fi.

The recently introduced Ohio House Bill 666 would provide Ohio artists an income tax credit on profits that they make from selling their work within a designated arts and entertainment district. “Movies are a form of art … be it the script, be it the act or the entire production,” Stinziano told The Lantern, referencing a tax credit that’s currently in place to incentivize film productions in Ohio.

Last year, American Theatre Wing and Carnegie Mellon University announced the creation of the Excellence in Theatre Education Award. Nominations are now open for the inaugural recognition.

Matt Bomer and Zachary Quinto, Carnegie Mellon University alumna, made the announcement during the TONY® Awards broadcast on June 8, 2014. The award is the first new Tony since 2009.

Frommer’s popular travel guide recently selected Asheville, NC as the number one destination in the country to visit in 2015.

“We’re picking [Asheville] this year because the sketchy riverside area has been totally redone thanks to the New Belgium Brewery, which has poured millions of dollars into this area, making new parks, artists collectives, farmers markets, bike paths,” says Frommer. “It’s just a great place to go. It has the most breweries per capita, so it’s always a party.”

Americans for the Arts has launched the National Cultural District Exchange this week - a new web-based resource, produced in part with the generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts, that includes a host of tools and resources specific to cultural districts. Cultural districts play an important role in helping to strengthen local economies, create an enhanced sense of place, and deepen local cultural capacity.

StubHub, the world’s largest ticket marketplace, recently announced its biggest music initiative yet to discover and support emerging artists.

Vickie Benson, Program Director at the McKnight Foundation reflects on how the foundation has and continues to suppport artist-centric creative placemaking through Minnesota as early as the 1980's.

Americans for the Arts' Artist Committee member and American artist, Jeff Koons, helps push forward public charity in the arts world with his $4million dollar piece, auctioned off by Project Perpetual on Nov. 9. The piece, based on Picasso’s La Soupe and titled Gazing Ball (Charity), stands six feet tall and is slung with donated Hermès handbags. 

On behalf of Americans for the Arts' partnership with We Are Veterans, Bob Lynch, President and CEO, will join a discussion panel after the special screening of PBS Craft in America: Service at the McEvoy Auditorium in the Smithsonian American Art Museum on November 6, 2014.

October is the month to #ShowYourArt, meet up for Creative Conversations, and celebrate the role the arts and humanities have in shaping and improving our communities - it's National Arts and Humanities Month (NAHM)! 

The greatest month of the year is upon us - National Arts & Humanities Month!

Another “Freedom Rock” was unveiled in Wapello County, Iowa, painted by muralist Ray "Bubba" Sorenson II in a partnership between the Ottumwa Area Arts Council and local Vietnam Veterans groups. The 11.5 ton boulder has been transformed into a Vietnam Veterans Memorial for the town of Ottumwa and will lead the way for a planned Freedom Trail, linking the town's veteran tributes to one another.

Arthur Bloom, founder of MusiCorps, and has been chosen as one of the Top 10 CNN Heroes of 2014. He will be honored at “CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute” airing December 7 on the global networks of CNN.